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Questions for Covey: People as Partners
February 06, 2008
This month's questions were submitted by Jann E. Freed, Ph.D., The Mark and Kay De Cook Endowed Chair in Leadership and Character Development, Central College, Pella, IA.
JF: Based on your background, what advice would you give to management educators on the best way to prepare leaders for the current world of work?
SC: Think strategically. Avoid esoteric jargon. Focus on universal needs and universal principles that are timeless. Develop the skills of empathic listening and producing third-alternative solutions through synergistic communication. Live lives of total integrity and service so your security comes from within and not from people's opinions of you and how well you stack up against others. "When man found the mirror, he began to lose his soul." Learn to affirm people's worth and potential so clearly that they are inspired to see it in themselves. Put your family first, under God. "No one on their death bed wished they'd spent more time at the office or watching television." Assume the half-life of your profession is just a few years, so constantly learn in a disciplined, accountable, interdisciplinary way. Finally, assume everything you say about another they can overhear, so speak accordingly.
JF: As you work with leaders around the world, what are the main issues they usually have to be concerned about to be effective?
SC: First, co-dependent people who feel victimized by others and by circumstances. Second, addiction to the Industrial Age model that leadership is a position, requiring external carrot-and-sticking to motivate (the Great Jackass Theory) inside an accounting system that makes people an expense and things an asset.
JF: You are an expert at telling compelling stories. What is the most common and significant mistake you see leaders make and the most significant and effective thing you think leaders need to do to have people follow them?
SC: The mistake is thinking that leadership is a position, not a choice. Real influence comes through servant-leadership. Leaders need to follow the four imperatives of leadership: inspiring trust by being trustworthy; involving people to clarify vision, mission, and strategic goals; aligning structures and systems to serve that vision, mission, and strategic goals; and affirming people's worth and potential to unleash their tremendous talent and passion.
JF: How can the authentic leader survive in today's world when the emphasis is on the bottom line?
SC: By becoming the creative force of their own life, freeing themselves from being a victim of the bottom-line mentality; living and working with total integrity so security comes from within; and then becoming a "transition person" (change catalyst) in creating a culture of committed people who think both long- and short-term and are governed by universal, timeless principles, and also are based on the mission to increase the economic well-being and quality of life of all stakeholders, including customers, suppliers, associates, partners, and owners.
JF: Your principles are spiritually based. What do you think about the spirit-in-the-workplace movement?
SC: I think it is central and fundamental, because spiritually based principles infuse themselves into the body politic and into the mind and heart of the entire culture. The essence of leadership today is centered on involving people as partners in creating a principle-centered culture, thus moving away from the Industrial Age model of control and boss-centeredness.
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